A Year After Implementing It, Unity Has Decided To Fully Do Away With Its Runtime Fee

Last year, game developers using Unity got an upsetting surprise when the company announced it would be shifting its payment system for those using the engine. The idea was to charge developers a runtime fee, charging as much as $0.20 every time a game is installed on a new device. The fee wouldn’t be charged immediately, but once a game passed a specific threshold.

As you might expect, users weren’t happy and they made it known. That said, Unity went ahead with it on January 1 or users using a license other than the Unity Personal License. The new plan was in place until today when the company announced that it would be totally doing away with the runtime fee in favor of a traditional subscription price raise.

According to today’s announcement from President and CEO Matt Bromberg, the reason the company decided to do away with the fee is that it’s “in conflict with [their] customers”. Bromberg adds that “at its heart, it must be a partnership built on trust”, and discusses how he’s talked with customers over the last several months who understand that price increases are necessary, but that they “needn’t come in a novel and controversial new form”. This does mean that some subscriptions are going to see increased rates, some increases as much as 25%, so maybe you still should shop around before using Unity for your next project.

Effectively, over nearly a year, enough people have complained – or perhaps started looking elsewhere for their engine, so it was time to make a change. You can’t get fees from people who aren’t using your product.